Sunday, 10 June 2018

Re imagining Pakistan, Yasser Latif Hamdani

Husain Haqqani is Pakistan’s most famous exile at the moment.
This is because of the infamous Memogate case, about which the less is said the
better. My own past relationship with him has been fraught with unease,
primarily because I disagreed with several historical claims in his previous
books. Having myself spent a great amount of time researching Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, I have found many inaccuracies in his work.

During a trip to Washington DC, I had the
opportunity to meet him and exchange views with him on several issues. There
was both agreement and disagreement, but one thing was readily apparent. Mr
Haqqani is not an enemy of Pakistan or even its military. If anything, he
sincerely wants Pakistan to progress as a state and indeed become a modern
democratic state, which is at peace within and without. This is what we all
want.

Therefore I read his latest book “Reimagining
Pakistan” with great interest. To be honest there is still much room for
disagreement in his telling of the founding of Pakistan but fundamentally, one
agrees that the founding of Pakistan was seen by its founding father, Jinnah,
at least as a constitutional solution to a political stalemate which would
result in Pakistan and Hindustan living side by side as the US and Canada with
open borders and free flow of ideas and trade. If Jinnah was to come back today
and look at the subcontinent, he would be the first to admit that this has not
come about.

Mr Haqqani also points out that Jinnah
declared that he was going to serve Pakistan as its Governor General as a
citizen of Hindustan. Therefore, the idea of citizenship was to him at least
not a settled one, which is why Jinnah intended to return to Bombay and live
out his retirement there. Where one feels he should have invested more is
explaining how or why Jinnah, who proudly proclaimed for most of his life that
he was an Indian first second and last, came to be so disillusioned in the last
eight years that he resorted to demanding the creation of Pakistan. My own book
on Jinnah’s life, which is to be published in India in 2019, will address this
question specifically.

However Mr Haqqani’s criticisms are on the
money. Pakistan came into existence with its leadership largely unprepared.
This is reflected in Jinnah’s insistence on keeping British governors in all
provinces except Sindh. Mr Haqqani also rightly points out that the so called
Islamic Ideology that is said to be the basis of Pakistan was never forwarded
by Jinnah himself, who had spoken of the Two Nation Theory in the same way as
the Two Nations Theory in Ireland. As a lawyer, Jinnah used that as precedent
in British India. One could go further and say that the unpreparedness of the
Muslim League leadership at the time of partition shows itself that its top
leadership at least never expected Pakistan to come into existence, using it as
a bargaining counter at an All India Centre for division of sovereignty instead
of land. Certainly, the alacrity with which Muslim League had given up its
Pakistan demand and endorsed the Cabinet Mission Plan only a year before
partition seems to point in this direction.

Mr
Haqqani’s criticisms are on the money. Pakistan came into existence with its
leadership largely unprepared. This is reflected in Jinnah’s insistence on
keeping British governors in all provinces, except Sindh

Mr Haqqani points out that it was always
forecasted that Pakistan was going to wither away — a theory that seems to be
the perennial favourite of Western commentators. Pakistan did not, and thus
disappointed a lot of its critics and opponents. The question Mr Haqqani asks,
however, is qualitatively different. Instead of beating our chests with pride
about having survived despite repeated predictions of our collapse, we should
seriously investigate why a question mark has always hung over our existence.
To rid ourselves of this question mark, we have to seriously reimagine
Pakistan. Mr Haqqani is not the first one to say this and he will not be the
last one either. Militarily, we are a strong country with nuclear weapons, so
the idea of India or whoever overwhelming us through force is a very remote
possibility. For our own sake though, we have to recognise that our failure
lies not in the collapse of the state but our inability to establish a working
democracy and civilian supremacy.

There are two reasons for this says Mr
Haqqani, and I tend to agree with him.

The first is the idea of Islamic ideology as
the basis of polity in Pakistan. To this end, he quotes both Suhrawardy and
Toynbee, showing that any attempt to create an exclusively Muslim or Islamic
state would actually lead to the state’s destruction. Indeed it would have been
even more useful if he would have referred to Mr Jinnah himself, who had told
the Raja of Mahmudabad that the idea of an Islamic state where Muslims were
divided into 70 plus sects would mean the state’s dissolution. The idea of nationalism
itself works cross-purposes to the idea of a constitutional state in my
opinion. What is important is citizenship. Pakistan’s citizenship law is based
on Jus Soli i.e. son of the soil. Indeed, Pakistan is the only country in Asia
to follow this radical idea, which in theory at least is entirely
non-discriminatory. It is about time Pakistan’s governance showed deference to
this idea of citizenship and recognised that a Pakistani is a Pakistani,
regardless of what religion he belongs to. A Pakistani does not equal a Muslim
and a Muslim does not equal Pakistani.

Therefore, the idea of having a state religion
or of barring non-Muslims from the highest offices of the state is entirely
contradictory to this basic reality. Pakistan is not Israel. Pakistan is not
the Muslim Zion. Unfortunately the powers that be have not learnt their lesson
despite repeated humiliation the world over. NADRA has recently floated a
proposal that now every Ahmadi, Scheduled Caste, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian,
Parsi or Sikh has to give an affidavit not just stating that he or she is a
Hindu, Christian, Parsi or Sikh but additionally an affidavit stating that he
or she is a Non-Muslim. This proposal is especially targeted at Ahmadis but
even otherwise, it establishes that somehow Muslims are the main category and
everyone else is a non-Muslim. This vitiates the very spirit of Pakistan’s
citizenship law.

The second is the virulent anti-Indianism.
While I disagree with Mr Haqqani on his hypothesis that Indian politicians have
reconciled themselves with Pakistan’s existence wholeheartedly, Pandit Nehru’s
statement at Aligarh notwithstanding, one has to accept the contention that we
cannot remain in a perpetual state of hostility towards our much larger
neighbour. Such conflict is ultimately more damaging to us than the larger
party, because they have the ability to scale it.

Even
otherwise in 1999 Prime Minister (PM) Vajpayee symbolically accepted the
existence of Pakistan by visiting Minar-e-Pakistan. We have the world’s sixth
largest military and fastest growing nuclear stockpile. This insecurity that
India is out to get us is therefore entirely misplaced. Mr Haqqani recommends
that we look to Belgium as a model, because Belgium was born out of conflict
with the Netherlands in 1830. While he does skip the whole issue of Belgian
exploitation of Congo, he has a point that Belgium did not attempt to imagine
Netherlands, France or Germany as its nemesis. Consequently, this new state in
Europe has weathered many storms including the two World Wars and has emerged
as a central member of the European Union (EU) today. Belgium can easily afford
a model future for us to follow in this respect.

In the future, if we can put our house in
order, Pakistan can easily be an Asian Belgium. Islamabad can be the Brussels
of Asia, but it requires course correction, acceptance of limitations and a
welfare-oriented goal. This is how one wants to re-imagine Pakistan. Whether or
not Mr Haqqani can restore his reputation amongst the ultra-nationalists of
Pakistan through his book, to me he is a true patriotic son of Pakistan.

The writer is a practicing lawyer and a
Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in Cambridge MA, USA. Twitter
@therealylh. He blogs at http://globallegalforum.blogspot.com

About Me

Dr Shabir Choudhry has done extensive research on the issue of Kashmir and Indo Pakistan relations. He passed BA Honours in Politics and History, and Mphil in International Relations (title of the thesis, ‘Kashmir and Partition of India’); and title of his PhD thesis is ‘Kashmir- An issue of a nation not a dispute of a land’.

Apart from this Dr Shabir Choudhry passed Post Graduates Certificates in Education, and NVQ Assessor’s qualifications; and taught English in London.

Political Achievements

Founder member of JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front established in 1977) and got elected as a Press Secretary in 1984.

Became its Secretary General in 1985, and resigned from this post in 1996.

Got elected President of JKLF and Europe in May 1999, and decided not to contest in elections of July 2001.

Said good - bye to the JKLF as it is in many groups and is largely seen as advancing a Pakistani agenda on Kashmir dispute, and set up a new party Kashmir National Party in May 2008.

.

At present, he is:

·Spokesman Kashmir National Party and Director Diplomatic Committee;

·Spokesman for International KashmirAlliance;

·Founder member and Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs;

Previously

·A founder Member and Trustee/ Director of London based registered charity, Kashmir Foundation International and resigned from this position in August 2001.

·Regularly take part in the Sessions of the UN Human Rights (Commission) now Council in Geneva; and address various conferences and seminars to oppose violence and highlight the Kashmir cause.

·Participated in a Round Table Conference on Kashmir, organised by Socialist Group of European Parliament in Brussels in 1993.

·Addressed as a Chief Guest in a seminar on issue of Mangla Dam during the UN Sub Commission’s proceedings in August 2003.

·Addressed as a key - note speaker in a seminar on the issue of Gilgit and Baltistan, organised by Association of British Kashmiris.

·Addressed as a keynote speaker on human rights conference in Paris in 1991.

·Addressed at CambridgeUniversity as a Chief Guest in a conference on Kashmir in 1990.

·Addressed as a keynote speaker at New Delhi conference on Kashmir, which was part of Track Two diplomacy in November 2000.

·In September 2008, addressed a Conference arranged by Interfaith International in Geneva, topic of which was:“Kashmir Issue, Terrorism and Human Rights”.

·Addressed as a speaker in a NGO Conference on Self - Determination in Geneva in August 2000.

·Addressed as a keynote speaker in a fringe meeting of Liberal Democrats at their Annual Conference in Brighton in 1995.

·Participated in World Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993.

·Before President Clinton's visit to India and Pakistan in 2000, lead a JKLF delegation to the State Department to discuss Kashmir dispute and situation in South Asia.

·Also had two rounds of meetings with senior State Department officials before President Musharraf’s meeting to Washington in June 2003.

·Apart from that had meetings with senior officials including Ministers of different countries, and also held many meetings with the State Department and Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials on number of occasions.

·Played important role in advancing a Kashmiri perspective on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir; and also helped Baroness Emma Nicholson with her report ‘Kashmir: present situation and future prospects’, which was adopted by the European Parliament in May 2007.

·Won first prize in an essay competition in Urdu in 1976. It was organised by High Commission of Pakistan in London, and title of the essay was 'Qaaid-e- Azam's role in Islamic History'.

·Apart from that have addressed conferences in Brussels, Geneva, Toronto, Islamabad, Delhi, and

Publications

·Got first Urdu novel ‘Fareena’ published at the age of eighteen.

·Second Urdu novel ‘Bay-Khataa’ which was about the problems of Asian youths living in UK published in 1983.

·Third Urdu book ‘Pakistan and Kashmiri struggle for independence’ published in 1990.

·Fourth Urdu book is also on Kashmiri struggle, 'Is an independent Kashmir a conspiracy?'

·Apart from that has twenty books and booklets published in English on various aspects of the Kashmiri struggle.

·Recent publications are: Kashmir dispute as I see it

·Different perspective on Kashmir

·JKLF visit to Pakistan Administered Kashmir

·Kashmir Needs Change of Heart

·If not self - determination then what?

·Emma Nicholson report- who has won?

·Struggle for independence, Jihad or proxy war (Introduction by Baroness Emma Nicholson)

·

Future publications

Following books were completed some time ago and shall be published in near future:

In Search of Freedom - My visit to Srinagar and Islamabad

Kashmir and Partition of India

A brief background

Dr Shabir Choudhry was born in a small village called Nakker Shimali (near Panjeri) in District Bhimber, Azad Kashmir. He went to UK in 1966, and like other people from the region, holds a dual nationality. He left secondary school in 1970 with no qualifications and began his life as a textile worker.

In 1975 he started part time studies and passed Matriculation from Government High School Panjeri, passed ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from UK, and resumed full time degree course in 1981, and passed BA (Hons) in Politics and History in 1984.

He continued full time and part time jobs until he got his Mphil. He passed his PGCE (Post Graduates Certificate in Education) in 1990, and then started full time job as a Lecturer. Due to health problems he resigned from teaching in 1999. At present he is self - employed, provides private tuition, translation and interpretation and consultancy.

Through out his adult life he has actively worked for the cause of Kashmir, and even during long illness he effectively carried out his responsibilities as a leader of the JKLF, a ‘prolific writer’ and consistent campaigner of Rights Movement and peace in Jammu and Kashmir and South Asia.